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by Dan LiebmanTrainer Bennie ''Chip'' Woolley Jr. had a rough start to the year. He crashed his motorcycle in some gravel and broke his leg, and his stable was having a tough time winning races, with one lone maiden winner from 32 starts.On May 2, his year got better. Chip Woolley won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).Which is ...

Well, we saw one bird fly over the rainbow. The vast majority of experts and racing fans were astounded, aghast, and amazed at Mine That Bird’s otherworldly performance in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), in which he took off on a demonic dash as if he were being chased by a swarm of angry hornets. Read the full ...

Every year following the first Saturday in May, a standard question about the latest Derby winner is: Can he handle the distance in the Belmont?  It's always assumed -- or at least it has been for maybe a couple of decades now -- that the Derby winner will be comfortable with the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) course.  After all, ...

The Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) was taken in devasting style by Rachel Alexandra, who romped by 20 1/4 lengths. Like Mine That Bird, she is from the first crop of her sire -- in her case, Medaglia d'Oro (TrueNicks,SRO) .  (With Tapit (TrueNicks,SRO) , Speightstown (TrueNicks,SRO) , Candy Ride (ARG) (TrueNicks,SRO) , and Even the Score ...

Squeezed back as the field left the stalls and way off the pace early on, Mine That Bird -- under a rail-skimming ride from Calvin Borel -- ran past a rubber-legged field in the stretch to take a muddy renewal of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) by 6 3/4 lengths. The $9,500 yearling -- the least expensive in the race -- ...

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} Brought to you by: OCD Pellets Calvin Borel, the hard-working and unassuming jockey who won his second Kentucky Derby aboard 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird, will be the guest on BloodHorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast this Thursday, May 7.A 42-year-old Louisiana native whose brother, ...

  Should it really be a surprise that Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I)?Mine That Bird's Grandsire, Grindstone, won the 1996 Kentucky Derby. Mine That Bird raced in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and his connections mentioned some good points in their post Kentucky Derby press conference. The connections ...

Isn't it ironic? The sale Fasig-Tipton officials thought about ending - the Kentucky fall yearling auction - has been the source of the two most recent Kentucky Derby winners. Mine That Bird and Big Brown both were sold there.   Does that mean we should all go looking there for a Derby horse? Probably not. But this development does show ...

Last week we discussed the fallibility of the Dosage ''rule'' for the Kentucky Derby.  (Derby winners are supposed to have enough stamina influences to rate 4.00 or lower on the Dosage scale.) I predicted the rule would have to change because today's North American Thoroughbred is being bred for speed (high Dosage Index) and eventually Derby ...

''Mine That Bird is last; no surprise there,'' I said to my colleague Esther Marr as we watched the horses pass us for the first time while standing trackside for Derby 135. Why do they even let half of these horses in the field, I said to myself for a split second before continuing to watch the field round the turn. Less than two minutes later I ...